Abu Dhabi operator expanding North Sea output

8/11/2009

Abu Dhabi operator expanding North Sea output

Abu Dhabi oil company Taqa Bratani Ltd plans to boost its UK North Sea oil and gas production by buying up mature oilfields and greatly increasing efficiency, the head of the company's UK arm said yesterday. Taqa, the UK arm of Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, has officially taken control of operations of the North Sea Brent crude system from Shell.

The Brent system, responsible for transporting around 100,000 bopd of oil, is a key production stream and an important part of the pricing benchmark used to value billions of dollars of oil around the world. The operator explained that it hoped to increase UK North Sea output steadily from its current level of about 45,000 boepd, which is split into roughly 80% oil and 20% gas.